Dr Greg Bahnsen - Proverbs: Proverbs 14:16 (Taking Sin Seriously) (Part 62)

We continue our exposition of the Book of Proverbs this morning, returning to Proverbs 14, and we'll be reading the 16th verse. And then I will let you know, as we go through the Book of Proverbs, the other passages that we are reading as well. But begin with Proverbs 14 at the 16th verse, and hear now God's word. A wise man feareth and departs from evil, but the fool bears himself insolently and is confident. Proverbs 16:17. The highway of the upright is to depart from evil. He that keepeth his way preserveth his soul. Proverbs 22:3. A prudent man seeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and suffer for it. Proverbs 27:12. The prudent man seeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and suffer for it. In Proverbs 30:32. If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thy hand upon thy mouth. And thus far the reading of God's word. Life is full of risks and dangers which, when they are not taken seriously, when they are underestimated, become truly detrimental to us. You know, the examples could just go on and on of that. Just think of how people begin smoking only to find later that the risk, the danger that it poses to them is something they cannot easily give up. Now, people who get hooked on alcohol, or if we don't have drunkards with us, think about people who get hooked on caffeine, who, as a matter of fact, couldn't get by without their morning caffeine. Now the world is full of such dangers and risk that we don't take seriously until it's too late. People who get hooked on gambling sometimes find that to be the case. Just one more throw of the dice, one more hand of blackjack, one more pull of the jackpot, and we think we're going to be able to make up our losses. And it turns out that we get deeper and deeper in debt. People make mistakes with respect to casual sex and driving too fast and on and on and on. I think this morning of that dancer, Juliet Prowse, who, even though she had been attacked by a lion in her stage act, underestimated the beast and was recently attacked again by the very same lion. Life is full of dangers that we underestimate. We think we're going to be okay. We think we can be safe. We think we can play with fire and not get burned. And it doesn't turn out that way. And there are opponents this life as well who become real menaces when they are not taken seriously. That is admittedly the problem of the West Berliners. They underestimated their communist opponents. They did not understand the hostility of the enemy until the Berlin Wall went up and people got shot for trying to go through. And then they realized what they were dealing with and it was too late. Now the greatest danger of all in life though, and the biggest enemy man has ever had, is sin. The transgression of God's holy law. And when the danger of sin is underestimated and when its threat to us is not taken seriously, when we don't respond with due caution and fear in the presence of sin, it becomes as deadly as can be and it certainly then has us in its clutches. It's just our taking a light hearted attitude towards sin that Satan is so pleased with because that makes us an easy prey. I think of the miserable released convict Gary Dotson. You know, this is the man who was found guilty of raping a young woman, a woman who then later recanted her story about him and this led to his release from a terrible prison sentence on parole. But apparently Mr. Dotson did not take seriously the circumstances of his parole and did not care to to protect his freedom. The news reports this weekend you may have seen already are that after numerous run ins with the law and repeated parole violations, he is now arrested for attacking a waitress and is likely set to return to prison for the duration of the original sentence for which he wasn't guilty in the first place. What is it about us that makes us so foolish about sin and the dangers of sin? You see, he did not reckon seriously with the jeopardy of his situation. He underestimated the danger of sin in his life. But you see, Gary Dodson's an easy target for us this morning because his sin is so dramatic and because his situation is so publicized. The fact of the matter is that all of us have that same kind of problem that he does. Underestimating the threat of sin in our own lives, we minimize the gravity and we minimize the danger of our own characteristic sins. I don't know if you've ever noticed that about yourself, but you tend to minimize those sins that are your besetting sins and to make a great deal of the sins of others. They stand out as being so unusual to you, not because they're unusually grave in the eyes of God, but because they just aren't your sins, your own particular sins, your characteristic faults and offenses against the word of God are usually rationalized, minimized, underplayed in some way. It used to be, it's not this way now, in our of enlightened liberation for everybody on the face of the earth. But it used to be that prisoners were used as the labor to build the walls of prisons. The inmates, you see, had to contribute to building or rebuilding the walls that kept them in. What an irony, that is. The prisoners would, brick by brick, create their own imprisonment. And certainly no one single brick seemed so damaging to their freedom. One prisoner carrying one brick across the yard and laying it on this growing wall. But so it is with us. We don't look seriously at our sins, our particular offenses, and therefore we end up erecting our own freedom, destroying prisons. Spiritually speaking, sin is to be taken seriously. That's the message of Proverbs this morning. We begin in Proverbs, the 14th chapter, at the 16th verse, where God tells us that a wise man will fear and depart from evil. It's the fool who bears himself insolently and is confident. See, overconfidence in the presence of sin is no virtue. I think just about everybody realizes there's a fine line in battle between courage, foolhardiness. A soldier who is courageous may in fact be scared. He may even fear for his life. But he does the right and the noble thing at the right time under the right circumstances. It's the foolhardy soldier who says, let's just get out there and shoot him up and takes chances and jeopardizes his unit and his own life in ways that he shouldn't. Overconfidence is not a virtue, but it's certainly not a virtue in the presence of sin. It's a tremendous vice. You see, when we're overconfident about how we can handle sin, how we can minimize the effects of sin in our lives, we're playing with fire. The Bible tells us there are some things that we should truly fear. It's not at all unmanly. It's not immature to fear the appropriate things, and we should fear sin. This is not a lack of a macho attitude. It's utter realism to see the effects of sin and what it does to us. Remember the famous words of Alexander Pope, fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Here's the fool in Proverbs 14:16 who bears himself in an insolent manner and is confident. He's not worried about sin. He thinks he's got everything wired, everything under control. He thinks he's going to be just fine. The wise man, the prudent man, on the other hand, fears and he turns away from it. He departs from sin. He doesn't rush in where angels would fear to tread. The stubborn fool, being self confident and overconfident, however, never fears until he falls. My guess is I just described every one of us in this room. We do not come to fear sin until we fallen. Consider Peter. Peter the leading apostle. Peter, the man who before Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, said, lord, though every one else deny you, I won't betray you. I won't turn my back on you. Peter, who was so bold as to actually take out a sword to fight an overwhelming mob that had come to arrest Jesus with staves and with clubs and so forth. Peter was willing to take them on this bold, brash man, overconfident about his spiritual abilities and then within hours, readily denied Christ three times in the presence of a slave girl at the fire at the high priest's home. Confident Peter, overconfident, self confident Peter, who ends up denying the Savior. We too are like Peter. We're overconfident. We're self confident, self confident people. When we do not take seriously the effects and the presence and the threat of sin in our own lives. Oh, how many ways do we do that? We say to ourselves sometimes, whether we say it out loud, I do think we say it to ourselves in one way or another. You know, I couldn't fall into that kind of immorality. You look at the problems of people around you or what you read in the paper or terrible stories you hear, and we tend to think, oh, well, I mean you, that's a step beyond what I'm capable of. My friends, you don't know what you're capable of. The heart is desperately wicked. Who can know it? How else do we minimize sin and don't take it seriously? Well, we say, you know, this is a relatively minor offense. Some people are guilty of rape and murder. I'm only guilty of gossip. And so we minimize what the offense is or we'll say about certain sins, a little bit can't hurt that much. We tend to think that if we just dish out our sin in moderation, that somehow that's going to make it acceptable to God and less detrimental to our own eternal destiny. And then of course there's the approach of those who say their foibles are something humorous. Those who seem to have such a good attitude they can laugh at their sins, when in fact laughing at their sins is not just a socially acceptable way admitting their fault but is also a self deceptive way of accepting it for themselves. I would caution you on the basis of what Proverbs 14:16 tells us to count nothing minor that hinders the holiness of your profession of faith in Jesus Christ. Count nothing minor which hinders your walk with God. If there is something in your life which stands between you and a holy profession, that something that stands between you and utter obedience to a holy God, don't count it minor. Consider it a grave threat. Take it seriously. Don't be like the fool who is insolent and confident and just, carries on in the presence of sin. The righteous, the prudent and the wise man looks at evil and he turns from it, he departs from it. He knows that he shouldn't mess with something that threatening. Proverbs 16:17 continues this theme. The highway of the upright is to depart from evil. He that keepeth his way, preserveth his soul. See, God's word calls upon us to depart from evil. It's hard for us to hear that today. It seems so blunt, it seems so unadorned, it seems so straightforward and simple. And it seems so out of character for our age. Our age says evil's all right, you just got to make sure you stay in control, that's all. Our age tells us nothing can be all that bad if everyone is doing it. Our age tells us, if it feels good, do it, it's all right. The Bible says, turn your back on it, depart from evil, treat it decisively, treat it negatively. And if you don't mind me saying so, just say no to evil. When the temptation is there, the Bible says immediately say no. I don't want this in my life. I don't want to contemplate this. I don't want to toy with the idea, I don't want to play with the fire, just say no to it. Because we aren't to toy with transgressions of God's holy law in this regard. Contrast in your own minds this morning the experience of Joseph, Potiphar's house and David out on his roof beholding Bathsheba. Joseph was a man who knew how to say no. Joseph knew what it was to depart from evil. In fact, the Bible says quite literally he departed from evil. So much so that when Potiphar's wife laid her hands upon him, Joseph departed and left his garment in her hands. He was not going to let sin bring him down. And you know, in that situation we might tend to say, well, he was being seduced. I mean, he wasn't the person who was guilty in this particular case, he was simply giving into a temptation. The Bible commends Joseph for his departing from evil. David, on the other hand, who could have averted his eyes and looked the other direction and changed his thoughts and been pure in his affections, nevertheless saw Bathsheba, another man's wife. And David schemed to find a way to make her his own. And he did. You know, if you stop and think about it, how many steps must there have been mentally for David, how many steps must there have been socially for David before he could finally effect that sexual union with Bathsheba that he desired? Every one of those mental and social steps that he took to get down that line was a place and a juncture where he could have said no, where he could have reconsidered and turned back, where he could have come to his senses, where he could have let his good spiritual training and upbringing be used to protect him from sin. But you see, the fool plays with fire. The fool says, it's all right, I'm okay. I'm in control here. It's not going to be that bad. The fool, fool rationalizes and deceives himself, and instead of just saying no and turning away from sin like Joseph did, becomes like David in the presence of that temptation. Proverbs tells us that the highway that is traveled by the upright is straight and sure. It's a very simple manner of shunning evil. It's the highway of walking in the ways of God by keeping his commandments. Notice how Psalm 119, the opening three verses, describes the highway of God in the same way that this Proverb does. Psalm 119. Blessed are they that are perfect in the way who walk in the law of Jehovah. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, that seek him with the whole heart. Yea, they do know unrighteousness. They walk in his ways. The highway of the upright is to depart from evil. It's the to walk in the ways of God. Now, does that mean that the Christian life is a life of negativity and deprivation and unhappiness? Does that mean that the Christian life is always a matter of not getting what we want and not being satisfied in this world? No, it means just the opposite. It means the straight and narrow road of life, which is God's way. And the ways of his commandments is the way of happiness for us. It's the way of true satisfaction. It's the way not only of spiritual security, but spiritual prosperity. There's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. And so when we say no to sin, when we turn our backs and treat it seriously and walk in the highway of God's commandments, it turns out that we are truly happy. I really can't think of an illustration where those who have sinned and have begun to feel the consequences of that in their lives would look back and say it was worth just isn't that way. The Bible says those who maintain this course, the straight and narrow road of God's commandments, those who keep going this way will in fact preserve their souls. He that keepeth his way preserveth his souls, and the opposite truth must be realized as well. Those who don't keep that way don't preserve their souls. They become their own worst enemies. They become not only self deceived about their lives, but self destructive in terms of their destiny. Proverbs 11:3 the integrity of the upright shall guide them, but the perverseness of the treacherous shall destroy them. The perverseness of the treacherous is what actually destroys them. We see a similar message imparted to us in Proverbs the second chapter, verses 6 to 15, which I have preached on previously to you, but I think it bears repeating this morning. Proverbs 2:6 For Jehovah gives wisdom out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding he lays up sound wisdom for the upright he is a shield to them that walk in integrity, that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his saints. Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and justice, and equity yea, every good path for wisdom shall enter into thy heart, and knowledge shall be placed pleasant unto thy soul. Discretion shall watch over thee understanding shall keep thee to deliver thee from the way of evil from the men that speak perverse things, who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil who are crooked in their ways and wayward in their paths. Wisdom will keep you out of that way. God will show you equity and righteousness and every good thing if you walk in his paths. And then we have Proverbs 22, the third verse, which is actually repeated. You probably noticed that during our time of Scripture reading this morning, Proverbs 22:3 is very tersely repeated in Proverbs 27, verse 12. The same message in both verses. Let me read that for you. A prudent man sees the evil and hides himself, but the simpleton passes on and suffers for it you see, Proverbs envisions a man who is walking in the direction of some dangerous obstacle or a pit or something that's going to be very bad for him. The prudent man sees the evil and then he hides himself, he runs from, from it. He's not going to mess with that. The fool, on the other hand, the simpleton, as the verse has it, passes right on. He just keeps right on walking, does not hide from the evil, does not have a cautious attitude toward it, does not turn his back on it, passes right on and for that reason pays the price. A mindless and a light hearted attitude toward things which displease God is not a sign of faith, my friends. It's a foolish and blind optimism. True fidelity toward God walks through this world in a wary fashion, walks through this world cautiously understanding that not only is everything in this world good because God created, but everything in this world is also because of man's sin. Now, a temptation to us to be misused. To me it's applied so that we don't obey God, we don't please him and glorify him in all that we do. So the shrewd man, as the proverb says, hides from evil. He hides from evil influence, he hides from temptation. The simpleton says, hey, there's nothing to worry about, I'm all right. The simpleton is confident in the presence of sin. And the Bible says he pays for it, he suffers because of it. God expects, expects us to be morally cautious, to recognize danger and to pull back from it. And you know why that's so hard? Because we have developed such a long standing habit of minimizing our own sins that when I call on you to go home and make an inventory of those things you should be careful about, you don't even think of those things because you've already minimized them. Isn't that the difficulty? We have so gotten accustomed to our own transgressions and our own lack of love toward God and our neighbor. Our own failure to glorify God in everything we do, whether we eat or drink or whatever it is. We are so accustomed to our sinful patterns that we don't even bring them to mind so that we can be afraid of them. So that we can be cautious about them and turn our backs on them. Fools are oblivious to the risk of sin and keep right on going, right on going. And as the Bible says, suffer for that carelessness. One more proverb this morning, chapter 30, verse 32. If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself and then listen. Or if thou hast thought evil, lay thy hand upon thy mouth. When sinful thoughts besiege you, thou lay your hand upon your mouth. Interesting way of putting it. Remember how Job had evil thoughts? Job thought he could challenge God. Job thought he could cross examine the Almighty. And when Job came to his senses, he says out loud, I clap my hand upon my mouth. Why is that? Because the thought here is that if you begin thinking something evil, don't let it go any further. Don't give expression to it. Putting your hand upon your mouth is a symbol of restraint, restraint of pulling back, of stopping things from going any further. And so this proverb tells us that we need to learn self restraint concerning our sinful tendencies, self restraint concerning our sinful thoughts. We need to learn to take sin seriously. I see three ways in which the New Testament reinforces the theme that we've been studying in proverbs this morning. First, Christ called to take sin seriously in Matthew the fifth chapter, verses 29 and 30. Matthew 5. At the 29th verse in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, if thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body be cast into hell. And if thy right hand causeth thee to stumble, cut it off and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body go into hell. These are very dramatic words. These are very strong words. Jesus says, if your eye offends you, that doesn't mean if your eye hurt you, that doesn't mean if your eye does something that you're really unhappy with it about and talk back to your eye and tell it it's doing wrong. It means if your eye makes you stumble into sin, that's what the word offense is all about. If your eye is the reason why you stumble into sin, Jesus says, pluck it out. Don't forget that in the Sermon on the Mount, as elsewhere in Jesus teaching, he uses what's called the teaching technique of how hyperbole, overstatement to make a point. He does not mean literally we should maim our bodies. He does not mean that if we do things with our hands that are sinful and bring us down, we should literally chop off our hands and throw them away. But you can certainly remember the teaching when he puts it just this graphically. He says, because as a matter of fact, it would be better that you entered into eternal life with a maimed body than that your whole body be cast into hell. That's how seriously you should take sin. Cut it off, pluck it out. Whatever is the occasion for sin, take definitive action about it. Avoid occasions for sin. You cannot be mindless and obey this commandment. You must be self reflective. You must be like the puritans in a certain extent. You must stop and meditate not only on God's word, but on your own life. Look at what happens in your life and the situations that lead you into sin. Do you know of certain situations that almost inevitably make you angry and make you say things you shouldn't say, then avoid them. Do you know of situations that tend to make you think situations? This is very basic pastoral counseling. I'll give you an example. Someone comes to me who's been a homosexual, has repented of that perversity, has become a Christian, has forgiven for his or her sin, and now wants to break with that lifestyle. One of the first things that person must do is to call up all of his or her homosexual contacts and tell them he or she has become a Christian and is leading a new life and will not be seen them anymore unless they're interested in finding out more about their new life. You say, well, that's. Boy, that's asking a whole lot. Jesus says, cut it off. All I'm saying is, understand, that's hyperbole. Cut off the occasion for the sin. Turn away from those social contexts that bring you down. Well, this probably sounds like good advice. When Dr. Ronson's talking to the converted homosexual, you think, but you see, now he's talking to you. What are your sins? What are the things you need to be plucking out of your life and cutting off? What are those things that you should seriously think about turning away from so that they don't bring you down? What leads you to sin? What circumstances do you find hard to overcome? Change them. If you're unwilling to change the circumstances which you're really saying all, although you don't want to draw the conclusion yourself, as you're unwilling to stop sinning. Jesus says, cut it off. Take it seriously. Paul also warns that sin must be taken seriously in Ephesians 6, 10:18. Ephesians 6, 10 18. Finally, be sure, strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles, the devices of the devil. Why? Paul says, for our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the Powers against the world, rulers of this darkness against the spiritual host of wickedness in heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all to stand, stand. Therefore, having girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, withal, taking up the shield of faith wherewith you should be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, with all prayer and supplication, praying at all seasons in the spirit spirit and watching thereunto in all perseverance. Now, why does Paul go on and on and on? Why does he say, make sure you are fully equipped. Make the whole armor of God yours. Appropriate it. He says this so that you'll be able to stand in the evil day. He says, you need some armor. You need some help. And the reason for that is you don't wrestle with flesh and blood. If you wrestled with flesh and blood, that would be minor. I mean, if you just had to take on people who physically attacked you day by day, we could find ways to teach you a little karate or something, and you can handle that. But the problem is much worse. You don't wrestle with flesh and blood. You wrestle with principalities and powers and spiritual darkness. Don't you understand? You're dealing with the devil. You're dealing with his host. And they are very deceptive, very devious. You need to know the wiles of the devil. And one of the wiles of the devil, just to bring this up again, is he knows what brings you down. He knows what buttons to push to make you angry, to make you lust, to make you gossip, whatever it may be. And so Paul says, take this seriously. Don't you understand what you're fighting? Don't you know who the enemy is? Don't underestimate him. And so get equipped. How equipped are you to deal with spiritual darkness in the heavenlies? Are your loins girded with truth? Is righteousness the breastplate of your life? Are your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel? Does faith become your shield against the fiery darts of the evil one? Is the helmet of salvation, Salvation protecting your life, the sword of the spirit in your hand? Are you praying with all supplication? Does this characterize your life? If not, I dare say you don't take sin seriously. If you're not Worried about that shield of faith and the word of God and praying and all the other attributes that Paul speaks of here. If this is not something that you diligently pursue and make sure that you put on every day as you get up, then you really think that the devil must be on vacation in your life, that the devil's really off taking care of other people, that he's given up on you and that you're really all right. You fool. You've underestimated sin. You've underestimated the perversity of your own heart. You underestimate the opponent. I told you. There were three examples, however, in the New Testament of taking sin seriously. Not only Christ's call to pluck it out and cut it off. Not only Paul's warning that our opponent is spiritually strong and we need the full armor of God. But I think the primary example, the highest example of how serious a matter of sin is, is the cross of Jesus Christ. You see, the Bible says that nothing less than blood atonement by the innocent could satisfy the justice of God. That's how serious sin is. I want you to think of that Savior whose birth we just celebrated this week. That Savior who came into this world to lead a pure, holy and unoffensive life. That Savior who was holy, harmless and undefiled, as our catechism puts it. This one who could say, who convicts me of sin and could say it was all humility and truth because the there was no sin in his life. This one who looked with compassion upon those who were fallen, who lifted the tax collectors and prostitutes out of their social oppression and said, God loves even you. This one who was willing to heal the sick for hours upon end in a day until he was exhausted at night and yet would get up early in the morning as the disciples would find him praying. This man of such superior spiritual qualities, this man of such admirable personal holiness died upon a cross. They're not only suffering the agonies, the physical agonies in his body, which really are minor in comparison to what he also suffered separation from his Father, having to cry out, my God, why have you forsaken me? This one who, as our Apostles Creed says, descended into hell for us. That's how serious sin is. That's what sin does. It's a matter of life and death. For you see, there is no atonement without the shedding of blood. The shedding of blood, meaning the giving up of life. Sin is so serious that it calls for death. Death. And nothing less than death can satisfy the justice of God's eternal judgment. God takes sin far more seriously than we do, doesn't He? God was willing to send his Son to the cross for sin. That's how seriously he took it. And it shouldn't surprise us then that since God takes sin more seriously than we do, God's love for sinners is far more intense, far more complicated, costly, and far more meaningful than our own love. We don't have any idea what it is to love as God does. Oh, we are called upon to do that and to emulate it and certainly to make that our ideal. But you know very well that we don't come anywhere close to loving like God did. God loved us so much that he gave his only begotten Son. And so what should our response be to the costliness of God's redemptive love? Well, it's the same message as Proverbs, depart from evil. Do you understand the costliness of love that redeems us? Do you understand the seriousness of sin? Then depart from evil. When you're tempted to sin, when you are tempted to tell a white lie or to talk behind somebody's back, or you're tempted to express your anger, or to think impure thoughts or to harbor grudges against somebody, or to do things which are really unhealthy for your body, when you're tempted to disregard the Lord's day and to cut corners, to be immodest or to be immoderate in your behavior. When you are tempted in any of these ways and many more to sin, remember what it cost Jesus. Every time you're tempted, remember what does this cost Jesus? It cost him his life. And then you'll take sin as seriously as God does. It's interesting to me how often the New Testament, when it talks about the redemptive death of Christ upon the cross, sees it as having ethical implications for us. I'll give you just a few examples and we'll close this morning. First Corinthians the sixth chapter, verse 20. First Corinthians 6, verse 20. Paul says, for you were bought with a price. Glorify God, therefore, in your body. Paul, in calling Christians away from immorality and sexual impurity, says, remember, you were bought with a price. Since you were bought with a price, you should glorify God with your body. You see, how the cross of Christ is the example of how serious sin is and how much God has loved us leads to the ethical conclusion we must turn away from it. Our First Corinthians 7:23 is similar thought, Paul says, you were bought with a price. Do not become the slaves of men. The way you lived your life to please God is motivated by the thought that you have been bought with the price of Christ's blood shed upon the cross for your sins. Look at first Peter, chapter one, verses 17 to 19, one of the clearest passages in the New Testament, teaching the substitutionary atonement of Christ for our sins. And yet even it has an ethical edge to it. First Peter 1 at the 17th verse. And if you call on him, His Father, who, without respect of persons, judges according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear, knowing that you were redeemed not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers, but with the precious blood as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ. Remember, you were redeemed by the blood of Christ, not something so cheap as silver and gold, the blood of God's own Son. And if you remember that, then you'll pass the time of your sojourning in this world in reverence toward God. You'll turn away from that vain manner of life that you have inherited. Remember the cross of Christ. And one more in the Book of Romans, chapter 61 4, Romans 61 4. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid we who died to sin. How shall we any longer live therein? Or are you ignorant? But all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. Don't you know you've been planted together with the death of Christ? And if you remember how he died to sin and rose to newness of life. So you must live a new life. Paul brings all of this, this consideration to a head in chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. I beseech you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Don't be fashioned according to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. Paul says, if you understand therefore, all that I taught you about the redemptive love of God, if you understand justification by faith, if you understand sanctification by the power of God's spirit, if you see God's redemptive love as I presented it to you in the first 11 chapters of this epistle. Therefore present your body as a living sacrifice. Therefore change your lifestyle. Don't be conformed to this world. Prove the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. And so we see how the New Testament tells us to take sin seriously. We can think about the need to pluck out our eyes and cut off our hands that does tell us how serious it is. We can think about our opponent. We don't wrestle with flesh and blood, but with spiritual wickedness in high places. But above all, we should think of the cross of Christ and the redemptive love shown toward us, because that above all shows us the costliness of sin and how far God will go to call us back from it. The fool passes on insolently thinking, I didn't need that sermon this morning, but I'm sure glad others heard it. Let's pray. Father, please wake us up to the seriousness of the danger that is all about us. Because because our hearts are not right with you, because we are sinful and unclean, because we are indeed desperately wicked. Help us not to deceive ourselves about these matters. Help us not to underestimate the jeopardy of our lives, spiritually speaking, help us to take sin as seriously as you do. We do pray, Father, in the first place, that you would forgive us for our sins. There is nothing we can do by cleaning up our lives or reforming ourselves or turning away from sin that will ever make up for the transgressions of your holy law of which we are guilty. We confess that to you and throw ourselves on your mercy alone as our way of salvation. We trust in Jesus Christ and his perfect atoning death as the only thing that makes us right in your sight. And yet we would pray as well, Father, that having trusted ourselves to Jesus for eternal salvation, that we would see what it cost you to save us. And that we would look upon sin as an ugly, terrible, distorted, self destructive enemy. That we would take it so seriously and hate it so much that we would loathe the stench of sin in our own nostrils, that we would turn from it and hate it. That we would learn to just say no, to avoid all occasions of sin, to reflect upon our lives, to do the hard work necessary to change our lifestyle so that we don't fall into sin. Lord, we pray that you would not help us, that you would help us to be more realistic and not as overconfident as Peter was, that we might see that we are capable of denying you. We are capable of so many ugly, terrible things. And so we finally call upon you to infuse us with the power of your spirit. That we might walk by the Holy Spirit and not by the flesh. That we might be strengthened in the inner man. That we might be renewed, enlightened and guided in the paths of your commandments. We are fearful of depending upon ourselves. Father, we wish to entrust ourselves completely to you, not only for our forgiveness, but for our sanctification as well. Do empower us to that end, that we would be eternally safe and you would be supremely glorified by our lives. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.